The Mausoleum of Gabrielli D'Annunzio, at Il Vittoriale at Gardone Riviera on Lake Garda, Northern Italy
Il Vittoriale house and gardens at Gardone Riviera on Lake Garda in Northern Italy. its eccentric charms alternating between amusing, creepy and joyously bizarre. Gabriele D'Annunzio was a poet and nationalist with a love of the grand gesture (he was actually born Gaetano Rapagnetta). His flamboyant eccentricity will also strike a chord with English visitors, He was presented with this large Liberty-style villa by the Italian State; Mussolini wanted to keep the self-styled war hero away from politics. D'Annunzio spent his time here dreaming up fantastical additions to his house and gardens, and filling the darkened rooms (bright light hurt his eyes) with his collections of stuff, from religious art (it didn't matter what religion) to the gilded shell of his dead pet tortoise. In his study, the most normal and light-filled room, he kept a bust of the Italian actress Eleanora Duse, a former lover. Her head is covered with a veil so it shouldn't distract him. The grounds with their strange monuments, from an open-air theatre to a mocked-up hillside warship. Whatever your opinion of D'Annunzio, he was a man who thought big and his fantasies make good entertainment. He was buried here; his tomb dominating the nationalist memorials in a large round mausoleum he planned himself, high on the slope above the lake.
Size: 5030px × 3341px
Location: Il Vittoriale at Gardone Riviera on Lake Garda, Northern Italy
Photo credit: © Brenda Kean / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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